Author: Stuart Alt

Howdy folks, my name is Stuart, and welcome to my page-o-rama. Here you'll find ways to stalk me and my family, as well as reviews I've done for games and perhaps things I'm working on. Other than that, I'm a twenty-something writer that happens to live in the horrible state of Minnesota. Good luck, stalkers.

GoNNER, where The Binding of Isaac meets Spelunky in a vague world filled with all kinds of baddies. The game is self proclaimed as a challenging roguelike, and that’s where it doesn’t miss a single beat. From the dozens of enemies on-screen, bullets flying everywhere, and vibrant colors throbbing on your screen, GoNNER is worth every cent.

LONGEVITY

With games like The Binding of Isaac that create a certain threshold needed to be met in order for other games to be as good, GoNNER enters with the world already against it. There are other games out there that already do the same things as this game, and they have been out for much longer with established fan bases. So, the question is this: Why play GoNNER when I could play something else? Well, the answer to that is simple, really. GoNNER is the most fun I’ve had playing a game in months, primarily due to my strives to beat it.

When players first start up GoNNER, they will notice right off the bat that the game doesn’t offer much in terms of guiding you where to go. On keyboard and mouse, there is no definitive button that fires, so navigating this is already a challenge. It never tells you how to equip items, it never once tells you why you will soon be firing your way through endless waves of minions, and it certainly never alludes to what may be at the end of your journey. This is why I keep coming back to the game, even after hours of reviewing it: there is a sense of exploration that the game rewards you for.

Every boss fight I’ve managed to get to and defeat, every single realm I’ve beaten the heck out of, I did so on my own without the game pushing me in any sort of direction. It throws you new weapons upon entering new worlds that you get to experiment with, but it doesn’t tell you what weapons are best for the world. All of it is on you to figure out. The game simply gives you an arsenal of tools, a rocking soundtrack, then let’s you on your way. It’s glorious, and getting to the end of it made me feel the same feelings as killing a major boss in Dark Souls.

Items

There isn’t much to say about GoNNER‘s items since they are most generic things about the game, but I still have to mention them. When players start the game, there are a few heads that can be equipped offering different amounts of health. One offers five, another three, and the last one simply offers one. It’s clear which of these heads players will opt for, making the other redundant. There are other heads that will become unlocked as players enter the later worlds too.

In terms of weapons and accessories, there isn’t much to say here either. There is a normal gun that fires modestly, a shotgun that shoots out multiple pellets, and a lazer gun that fire across the entire map. I found myself sticking to the lazer gun even after finding more and more guns throughout my multiple playthroughs, and I suspect that others will do the same. The accessories are where the real customization comes into play. There is a backpack that instantly reloads your weapon, and extremely valuable tool in a game where enemies will soon be flooding your screen. Another explodes around you, killing those within close proximity. The last one to be offered, and my personal favorite, is one that shoots your weapon is quick succession without using up your ammunition. Of course there are more that unlock, but these are what players will start off with.

I just wish that unlocking items in the game wasn’t so plain as reaching a new world and unlocking a new weapon, head, or accessory. The Binding of Isaac rewards players for doing unique things that take creativity. This same system should be implemented into all roguelikes, but GoNNER does carry that challenging connotation to it.

Navigating the world

The first world of GoNNER doesn’t offer much in terms of variety, being set in a black and white world with easy to maneuver platformers and predictable enemies. The music here is mild yet catchy, and it only ever picks up during moments of mass damage. The most redeeming quality of the first area is the secret area that offers a lot of currency used to buy more lives or items along the way. Even the boss here is kind of a joke, being taken down in just a few shots as the minions do nothing but rack up your score.

Then we delve into the hellish second world.

As I played more and more of GoNNER I began to notice a pattern: the first world is simply a warm up for what is to come. It’s easy, anyone can do it, and it gives you enough currency to revive yourself if you die later on. And you will, trust me. The second world has gaps in the levels that will kill you instantly if you fall in them, enemies that track you, turrets that fire upon you without mercy, and the platforms aren’t visible to you until you’re right next to them. Even if you run through the level as fast as you can, praying that if you just get to the end nothing bad will happen, something bad will happen. You will get chased down forever until you deal with the threats.

And if you get hit in the world? You better pray even harder. In GoNNER, when you get hit, all of your items fly off of your body in random directions. This means that even your head that gives you health flies off of you, and if you get hit without a head it’s an instant death. But, in a world where sometimes there is no floor, you can kiss your items goodbye. You’ll be alone in the world, having to jump over enemies in an adrenaline fueled craze. It’s glorious, and if you survive you will feel like the single greatest gamer to have ever lived.

I’m not going to discuss the later worlds for I feel people should experience them for themselves, but I will say that the color schemes of the worlds becomes more intense. White lights, neon flashes that throb, and with music to match the frenzy. They are worth fighting your way towards, and you’ll have fun along the way.

Conclusion

As I finished GoNNER, I find myself coming back to it in the same way I went back to The Binding of Isaac or Spelunky. The game may not be perfect in terms of amount of items or somewhat stiff controls, but it has a certain charm to it that I find endearing. It’s a game that fans of other roguelikes will enjoy most certainly, but for people who want a refreshing take on the genre, they won’t find it in GoNNER.

The world of Lothric is one filled with things of nightmares, creations that will fight you tooth-and-nail, epic sceneries, and even more epic boss battles. While Dark Souls 3 and its world are still polished gems, it doesn’t quite live up to the expectations of previous installments.

the World of Lothric

Continuing with the way storytelling is handled, Dark Souls 3 offers bits of lore through very few cutscenes and item descriptions. But, the story that is offered from the get-go is this: the Lords of Cinder, people who were supposed to watch over the Flame that protects and gives life to people, decided to abandon their posts. It is your job to continue to protect the flame and uphold its integrity by slaying the Lords throughout the land. From there on you’ll piece together what happened to all of the other characters, the world, and even yourself through everything you come across. It’s refreshing that a game doesn’t tell you exactly what’s happening, and often times it is still vague, but this isn’t new for a Souls game.

The first boss of the game provides a challenge.

As you explore Lothric in all of its majestic glory, there are a few things to note. The first thing, much like the rest of the Souls games is the starting area. Where Dark Souls had you fight a gigantic boss, and Dark Souls 2 had an expansive opening area, Dark Souls 3 offers a bit of both. You explore a graveyard that eventually winds down a hill towards the first boss of the game. You pull a sword out of his body to initiate the fight, and the rest is history. It’s no easy task to slay this boss, especially for such an early encounter, but it sets a certain precedent for the rest of the game.

But, to fully capture the tone that Lothric provides would be almost impossible. There are many zones in the game that create different atmospheres in and of themselves. There is an area of the game that is at the base of a snowy mountain, caked in snow and ice. You’ll travel down to the pits of an inferno with a colossal worm trying to devour you. There is even a graveyard with a giant slinging massive spears at you from afar. Each area is tense, and you have to be on full-alert in order to master the different realms. Lothric is a place for no weak soul, so you better toughen up before the game does.

This scenic view speaks for itself.

It’s also fair to compare Dark Souls 3 with the games that came before it, and the largest area of difference happens to be the organic flow of the world. Dark Souls created a fully explorable world that makes the saying, “All roads lead to Rome,” very true. Dark Souls 3, on the other hand, just feels like a bunch of areas tacked on in a very Super Mario World fashion. There are some small transitions from area to area that help with the adjustments, but overall the game seems scattered.

The only notable addition to the game that the others didn’t have is a special attack specific to each weapon. Some weapons will give you a shout that heightens your strength for a while, or some do powerful attacks themselves. These special attacks use up some of your mana, so it makes for melee builds going for attributes that mages normally require. It’s refreshing, but I found myself sticking to basic attacks instead.

Challenge

It wouldn’t be a Souls game if it weren’t challenging to the point of breaking your controller into a million pieces. Dark Souls 3 is still a challenge for those who aren’t accustomed to the nature of the game, which is essentially managing your items and build while memorizing the patterns of enemies. There are a plethora of choices to make in terms of character builds, be it a fast and aggressive knight or a squishy mage, but the challenge never appropriates these choices. The bosses and most of the enemies are geared towards melee combat, and with spells that aren’t targetting, mages are left out of the game for a significant portion. That being said, having magic to assist melee builds is the definite way to go in order to get the edge over enemies.

A screen that players will see many of.

The most surprising thing I noticed in my time in Lothric was that the overall challenge rating of the game was lower than all of the Souls games. Demon’s Souls, arguably the hardest in the series, crushed players’ dreams one-by-one. Dark Souls matched the challenge but also introduced a fluid world that felt like it could actually exist. The other games in the series haven’t been as difficult, but nothing has been as low as Dark Souls 3. I am unsure if the game actually is easier than the others due to the core mechanics of the game being faster (you attack, roll, walk/run faster), or if my experience with the other games has trained me well. If the latter happens to be true, it’s sad that FromSoftware didn’t take this into consideration seeing as the series has a large cult following.

Boss Fights

The reason most people stay in the many worlds of the Souls games is for the epic boss fights that are the banes of anyone’s playthroughs. In Dark Souls 3 there are 19 bosses to encounter and defeat, and some of these bosses rank amongst the best the series has to offer. The very first boss, Iudex Gundyr, has you pulling a sword from his chest to start things off. During his second phase, he tears himself open to reveal a monstrous beast with tentacles hidden inside. One boss has you plunge a sword into the head of a dragon from a few stories high. Another, possibly the most memorable boss fight FromSoftware has created, is one with the boss flying in on a dragon during a storm. There is never a dull moment in these fights, and they are the driving force in marching forward through Lothric.

One of Dark Souls 3’s many bosses.

Again, my largest complaint with the game carries over to the bosses: they are easier than they should be. To be fair, by the time New Game +2 rolls around, the entire game is a nightmare fueled by smaller nightmares. It’s just a shame that the bosses aren’t as challenging as they are fun to fight.

Multiplayer

I’m just going to mention this briefly because it deserves to be brought up: the multiplayer system in Dark Souls 3 is the last we’ll see from FromSoftware in a game such as this, but it manages to fix all the issues plaguing the other games. Players can easily join each other by configuring their settings so only friends can join, easily narrowing down their options of whose game they should be joining. Even entering another player’s world to either aid them or destroy them is simple now, and it doesn’t take forever to load into their world.

But, for those who were weary of the previous installments and their lag, that has been removed through further patches in Dark Souls 3. It took them a long time to perfect the multiplayer system, but now it is something that’s as enjoyable as the rest of the game.

Conclusion

Dark Souls 3 doesn’t offer much that’s new to the experience that so many gamers are used to, but it does stick to the formula that has always been solid. Returning fans will enjoy the last installment in a series that defined a genre, and new players will find a game that allows them to easily see what others have been raving about.

If you’re looking for something that expands on the Souls identity in refreshing ways, you won’t find that with this game. However, what you’ll find is that Dark Souls 3 is a game that understands the premise is getting stale, so it makes one final, safe push to send itself off.

SanctuaryRPG: Black Edition breaks the mold of contemporary games by launching you into an unforgettably harsh and humorous text-based world filled with all kinds of loot and monsters.

It’s odd to think that just a few decades ago people used to play — and thoroughly enjoy the heck out of — games that were purely text-based in nature. The idea that a game of that caliber could be so enjoyable and satisfying is baffling, but SanctuaryRPG: Black Edition manages to do it and more. It manages to strike a chord with the most devout gamers, while catering towards a goofy crowd that likes to laugh wildly. There’s nothing quite like it on the market because of its raw charm, and there is no reason why people shouldn’t be giving the game a go.

Gameplay

While many would take a look at SanctuaryRPG: Black Edition and pass it off as an ancient game, there’s something oddly contemporary about it. While the game has you just gather loot, slay monsters, then rinse and repeat, there is a sense of accomplishment and professionalism about it. For every single action you want to perform, you have to select your option then press ‘enter’. If you want to attack, press ‘1’ and then ‘enter’. To enter a tavern you’ll have to press ‘d’ followed by ‘enter’. It’s boring on paper, but in the actual game you will feel like a wizard on your keyboard. Battles will have you pressing buttons on your keyboard lightning fast as you calculate if you should attack or heal for the turn. It’s fast, it’s engaging, and it’s the main reason to come back even after completion.

Outside of the combat, there isn’t much more to say about what you actually do in the game. You’ll set up your character that has a goal to save the world, but it’s a story that’s riddled with quick, wet humor. The game has a serious visage about it, but never once does it play as an actual one. You’ll find potatoes along the way, quests that have you greet strangers only to be stabbed by them, and you’ll enter caves where you have to “rub lanterns until the sun sets.” SanctuaryRPG: Black Edition is one that you’ll also come back to for the humor, trying to see if you can find all possible dialogue options to laugh at.

Classic mode

Classic mode: the way the game was meant to be played. You venture out in the world with just your one soul and your arsenal of weapons. You come across a giant that looms over you, then he bashes you over the head. You’re dead, but you don’t respawn. Instead, now you have to start the game all over again with a new character. It’s not a frustrating ordeal either. If you are dying often, you’re doing something wrong. You’re on an adventure, not some walk in the park. It’s refreshing that a game would make the difficulty ceiling this high, but it’s more rewarding this way. It’s a complete, goofy adventure.

For those that don’t like the prospect of having to complete the game without dying ever, there are other options that will give you gold penalties upon death instead of an absolute termination. It’s a good substitute for people wanting to enjoy the game as just a game, but I recommend the Classic mode to experience the game it was meant to be played.

Black Edition

For those who aren’t aware of it, there is the original, free version of the game titled simply SanctuaryRPG Classic. Black Edition costs $7.99 on Steam, but offers nearly a complete different experience than the original. There is a complete overhaul of the art assets, newly composed music, double the amount of events to complete, and so many more additions it would take forever to write them down. I recommend that people play Classic before purchasing the full game to see what it is like, but if you do…go ahead and buy Black Edition.

Soundtrack

In a game where the graphics are nothing but ASCII, there has to be something more riveting to keep players playing. Each fight, be it a boss or just a normal baddie, has a tune to it that feels perfect for the moment. Even the small events that you come across, or finding better loot, or even just the sound effects of hitting an enemy are perfect. There is never a moment in the game that seems like the music doesn’t fit, especially since the music pays homage to the old classic ASCII games like Privateer and Art Ship. It’s also reminds me of the 16bit music that still holds up to this day, and I would put money down on SanctuaryRPG: Black Edition standing the test of time for its music alone.

Conclusion

SanctuaryRPG: Black Edition isn’t for everyone, but it’s got enough of a charm to it that I believe everyone should at least try it once. It’s not as abstract as Undertale, but it’s not as challenging or infuriating to get into as Dwarf Fortress. It strikes a balance of humor and tactics, something that is very rarely seen in the gaming industry. For people wanting a nice role-playing game to enjoy and breeze through, this is not for them. But, for people wanting to play something with its own flavor to it that is pleasant and addictive, look no further than SanctuaryRPG: Black Edition.

Bungie’s game Destiny has had some troubling beginnings that have slowly faded away with the addition of each expansion. Rise of Iron makes the largest leap forward into territory that makes the game worth every cent dropped, but it still misses a few beats. While the amount of content in the expansion is less than desirable, it makes for a great experience for old and new players alike.

Iron Lords

Destiny has been known for not having the best story, making players yawn and button mash their way through cutscenes. Rise of Iron offers a story that still doesn’t quite grasp audiences the way they would have hoped, but it’s a good enough story to mention. The Iron Lords, a group of tough individuals that serve the people by protecting them from threats, have come across a threat that killed all but one of them. The surviving member, Lord Saladin, is determined to find the threat that killed his friends, and you’re going to help him do so.

So you jump into the game climbing a snowy mountain with strong enemies that fans of the series should recognize by now. Eventually, you discover that there is an ancient technology in the universe known as SIVA that can create “perfected” versions of lifeforms, but that said technology got into the wrong hands. From then on, you just shoot your way through hordes of minions until the threat is eliminated once and for all. It’s generic at best, but gets the job done enough to propel the player through the five story missions the expansion offers.

New Light, Loot, and Levels

Rise of Iron wouldn’t be called an expansion if it didn’t expand upon the vanilla and latest version of the game, and here is where it shines. Players will be happy to hear that the Gjallarhorn, a magnificent beast of a rocket launcher that not only homes in on targets but detonates into smaller fragments, is back for the fight. The missions to acquire the rocket launcher are more interesting than the actual story missions, and these just have you fight off hordes of enemies as you defend a few control points. These missions are even the same length as the Rise of Iron ones in terms of hours spent and number of missions available.

Outside of the Gjallarhorn, there are countless new exotics, weapons, and armor pieces for people to discover and equip. With the new Light level being raised from 335 to 385, and this process taking quite some time to achieve the new maximum, players will spend numerous hours out in the Plaguelands trying to get all the loot available. The satisfaction of getting a new exotic after a Strike (a small dungeon with a boss at the end), or getting one from a random drop is still very much there. In fact, Rise of Iron makes the satisfaction a bit more euphoric due to how many items they’ve added.

They have also added new maps and modes for those that like Crucible, Destiny‘s slang for multiplayer. If anyone has played Kill Confirmed from Call of Duty, then the new mode Supremacy shouldn’t be too different. If you kill someone, they drop a relic that you have to collect in order to get points. If a teammate dies, you can pick up their relic to stop the enemy team from collecting. It’s a nice addition to what is already there, but it isn’t original, something that a space shooter could definitely be. The new maps don’t have much to say about them other than they are mediocre. Players, old and new, will find themselves wanting to play the original ones instead.

Strikes and Raid

Destiny, much like other MMORPGs, offers most of its content towards the end of the game. Rise of Iron offers up immediate Strikes to complete that will give you a few items per run that are higher Light level than your own, and it never grows stale. You’ll have to do it dozens and dozens of times just so you can access the raid (which has a recommended Light level of 370), but the wait is worth it.

Wrath of the Machine. A name that is far more ominous and threatening than King’s Fall ever was. I’m not going to spoil too much about the raid for those that haven’t played it, but it’s a refreshing taste after the last raid. You’ll still have to work together with a group of up to six players or else you will fail. You’ll still have to shoot all the minions you can, and then you may start peppering the boss. You’ll still find chests here and there that offer up better gear than what you have equipped. You’ll find all of the same things as before here, but just the natural progression through the raid feels more organic, an irony in and of itself.

It’s just a shame that there aren’t more raids for you to plunder, especially since other AAA games offer at least three end-game raids. Rise of Iron does provide roughly a six hour raid from start to completion, and this is if you do it flawlessly with the perfect team.

Conclusion

The lack of content, especially for the asking price of $29.99, is my only real issue with the expansion. The launch of it was smooth, the story was decent, and the new guns and gear made the grind worthwhile. The raid at the end felt satisfying, and the community involved was still helpful like it was in the past. It’s just that after the raid, there isn’t much to do other than sit and wish there was more content that fit the price tag.

Since the release of Destiny back in 2014, there have been no new classes or sub-classes, the maximum level has only increased to 40 (something that should have been raised with Rise of Iron), and only a handful of raids have been added. While the game is much, much better than it was back in 2014, and Bungie has slowly developed and molded the game into what they originally envisioned, it’s still got a long way until it’s a game that everyone should play.

For those who own the game already, the price tag is a bit steep for what is in store, but players who don’t already own Destiny can purchase it in its entirety for just $60, which is what the full game is worth at this point. Rise of Iron is an experience that gives a sweet taste at first, but it soon dissolves into a bland taste that you wish would just give you more flavor.

In an age where role-playing games are aplenty, it’s hard to find the ones that stick out from the rest of the crowd. Earthlock: Festival of Magic has all of the potential to fulfill the niche that the genre needs, but fails to deliver on most fronts. Underneath the flawed layers, however, there might be a game worth picking up.

Storyline

Earthlock: Festival of Magic starts off with a different approach to storytelling that isn’t seen to much in the medium: starting the plot with a side character that won’t be seen for a few more hours upon absconding. After that, the game begins down the path most games in the genre tend to follow: there is some special item out in the world that happens to fall into the protagonist’s hands, a villain out there in the world wants said item, they eventually retrieve it, then you have to fight your way through hordes of enemies in order to stop them from using it. We’ve seen it all before, so the premise here doesn’t capture the attention of the player in the slightest.

Not even the main character, Amon, seems too interested in what he is doing or with the people he is surrounded by. He often times makes crude remarks about his companions, to which they make a comment that gets disregarded immediately. The rest of the characters are sub-standard for a game such as this: a healer that also happens to be comic relief, a stoic fighter, and a ranged character that is jubilant about her career choice. There is nothing about the characters that stand out, which is a shame due to the core mechanics they are involved with.

Gameplay

There isn’t much to say about role-playing games nowadays that hasn’t been said or that hasn’t been seen before. Final Fantasy paved the path for games to come back in 1987, and many games have come out since then with the same formula involving combat and character management. Earthlock: Festival of Magic, though, offers up something a bit more involved that ends up being the game’s saving grace.

There are the usual suspects in the game that players will know how to coordinate them in battle, but what is interesting is that who the individual characters are paired with (bonded) makes all the difference in the world. For example, if Amon is paired with our hogbunny friend, Gnart, he gets different bonuses than if he was paired with someone else. This mechanic creates a number of combinations that offer different styles of battle, and it will take players a while to find something they are comfortable with.

There are also the ability trees that each character has that can either be unlocked to give passive upgrades or abilities in combat. The word ‘tree’ is used loosely here since it actually is just a solid plane of upgradable slots that can only be allocated in if they match adjacent, filled slots. These slots can be changed at any time outside of combat, making everyone in the party more diverse in nature.

Technical Issues

At first glance, Earthlock: Festival of Magic offers players an enjoyable, if dull, experience that everyone could enjoy. After about an hour of playing and getting through the tutorial, I began to notice that things just didn’t seem…right. The game lacks a certain polish about it that it never obtains throughout the 15+ hour storyline. During the in-game cutscenes, characters will walk right through each other or give deadpan reactions to things that would scare anyone with a functioning brain. Sounds for entire sections of the game will just drop and never return except through loading the game back up. Characters will enter the wrong stances than the ones chosen pre-combat, making for infuriating battles. And that is only on the surface.

While the game was built in Unity, it doesn’t give the game a pass at all the errors that plague it. The menus and just raw presentation feels like something a student would conjure up at college. The only word to properly describe the way the menus look is this: unprofessional. I also encountered odd camera issues that would make progressing literally impossible since I couldn’t see what was in front of me. What made this issue prominent wasn’t that I couldn’t advance, but it was because I had to reload the game, forcing myself to fight the previous boss for the fifth time in a row. It amazes me at how things like this get passed the developers’ hands, but they are there nonetheless.

A common, but minor, complaint I have is that the ‘start’ button doesn’t prompt up a character menu or item screen; it doesn’t bring up a menu at all. The ‘Y’ button does this instead, meaning that every time I press ‘start’ it only pauses the game. I must have lost an hour in total due to this, and I sincerely hope it gets resolved in future games of the trilogy.

The most intriguing issue the game has that stands out the most as unpolished is the fact that you can attack yourself or your teammates. Yes, you heard that right, you can deal damage to your allies that you’ve slaved through hot deserts with. This is because during combat, when selecting which enemy to hit, a simple tap to the right will now prompt you with the option of hurting a friend. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue, but in a genre that this never happens, it’s hard to break out of that logic. This doesn’t just apply to attacking teammates, but it also translates into healing your enemies. I think I have accidentally healed my foes more than I have healed myself, which is saying a lot given the game’s challenge.

Challenge

My biggest complaint with Earthlock: Festival of Magic isn’t the technical problems it clearly has, but rather the difficulty inherently. The first few encounters with enemies are simple and easy to decipher, but after the game drops you into the overworld, may God help you. There is no way to determine if you are properly leveled for an area until you are getting destroyed by just the simplest of mobs. I found myself dying several times to enemies that I knew were just the basic ones of the area. Now, most players would see this as a fault in their play-styles, but alas this is not the case. The game forces you to grind out ever last drop of experience in order to move on, then, if you’re lucky, you’ll come across a boss that will tear you to shreds.

It would be one thing if Earthlock: Festival of Magic was sold as a challenging RPG that forces players to think about everything they do. It wouldn’t be a surprise if it had the same concept as Dark Souls, but it doesn’t. There is nothing to prepare players for what they will come across, and since the game is free for those with an Xbox Gold Membership, I suspect many players will drop due to the challenge.

This difficulty doesn’t go away either as the game continues on, but rather it seems to get more difficult. The game isn’t impossible due to this major flaw because the crafting materials needed for healing potions (balms) are extremely common and can be farmed, but having to use a dozen health potions per fight is tedious and boring. By the time the last fight rears its ugly head our way, we are so used to the pattern of healing, doing damage here and there, then repeating. Earthlock: Festival of Magic ceases to be a game at that point; it becomes a chore masked by vibrant colors and damage ticks.

Conclusion

Earthlock: Festival of Magic genuinely has a promising game underneath all of the rubble that clutters it up. I recognized that Snowcastle’s passion for the game was there all along and never left, but it was never fully realized either. It seemed they focused too much on the fact they were making a game instead of focusing on making a good game. There’s a certain level of charm, of personality that can be seen, but by the half-way point all else detracts from this. The game plans to release onto Steam on September 27, but those with an Xbox One can get the game for free.

The game is the first in a trilogy that Snowcastle plans to make, so hopefully the next two games completely capture the flavor that Earthlock brings at a first glance. Hopefully they retain that flavor throughout, or else they will share the same fate as Festival of Magic: mediocrity.

Heart Machine’s debut game, Hyper Light Drifter, fully captures the aesthetic of decade old games that have shaped gaming. It borrows the retro look, the synth music, and challenging combat from older games. It then takes all of these ideas and morphs them into something that has its own charm; that stands out from the crowd of games that claim to be different and unique.

The most noticeable thing about Hyper Light Drifter is the visuals and the aesthetics used to create a world that feels lived-in and explored; colossal ruins covered in moss litter the main portions of the game; cobblestone with cracks in them that look like they could give at any moment; the main city/hub that provides both comfort and stress within the player because of the eeriness of it all. Now, tack on the stellar 8-bit graphics that makes the game look more fluid and full of life, and you have a world that is both fun to explore and fun to feel a part of. On top of the primary method of graphics used, the simple use of colors and lighting to give subtle hints to the player makes every bit of information on screen important. There isn’t a single wasted pixel that doesn’t either provide atmosphere, information, or a bit of both.

Fluid COMBAT

While people may come to look at the game in all of its neon-glory, the reason to stay is the challenging combat system that, when mastered, feels like some of the best in recent years. There is a simple attack that does moderate damage via a sword, and each hit of the sword generates ammo that your various weapons use up. The basic attack uses just one button, while using the gun uses up your L-trigger to aim and your R-trigger to fire. You can just press the R-trigger to fire your gun ahead of you as well, which provides much needed raw damage.

The variety of guns is a bit lacking, going from your basic pistol to a shotgun, beam rifle, and a rocket launcher. The variety in upgrades also is lacking, only giving players for ammunition to use for each weapon. To add to my disappointment about the weapons, players will soon realize that the best way to play the game is with the shotgun as a primary weapon. The shotgun is the best since you’ll be up close to enemies, and that it can take down the bigger enemies in one-to-two hits.

With that in mind, the combat itself just feels good to hit your enemies, watch them die, and then looks at the dead horde you just slaughtered. The combat is also reminiscent of Dark Souls or other games, where when you die, you know that you did something wrong; you didn’t memorize the attack patterns, or you forgot to stock up on med-kits, or you didn’t dodge in time. There is never a moment where the game is truly unfair, and it is aware of this at all times.

NARRATIVE

The use of storytelling in games such as these is often times hard to produce well, and comes sometimes come across as pretentious. Some games choose narrations to give exposition, and some games give it through dialogue bubbles that take ages to button-mash through. Hyper Light Drifter finds a happy medium through the use of pictures to give sentimental value to major events. Characters from time to time will give you small portraits of their events that, when pieced together, say who the enemy is and what the state of the region is.

You’ll also learn about the world through seeing things happen instead of being told. For example, the Eastern region has one species being killed by another. This is seen by the oppressed’s bodies laying out on the ground. No text needed; these people are being hunted. And while the game’s overall themes of sickness and depression are obvious, they fit in perfectly and don’t distract from the core elements of the game.

Music

The music also adds to the atmosphere that the game has created, fitting in well with the epic arena battles and the boss fights. There is never a moment where you’ll think that the music didn’t fit whatever you were doing, be it fighting a boss ten times as large as you or exploring some decrepit ruins. Even just the sound effects of the guns and your blade hitting flesh sounds right. My complaint with the soundtrack isn’t with the tracks themselves, but rather the volume at which they’re played. I played the game with the music turned down as low as it could go within the settings, and it still became overwhelming within the actual cut-scenes of the game. Regardless, it’s a soundtrack that I’ll definitely be going back to just to jam out.

Indie issues

The flaw that plagues most indie games, and subsequently Hyper Light Drifter, is the core length. I beat the game in just under seven hours, and that is with a moderate amount of exploring for collectibles to upgrade my abilities. The zones started out large and expansive with nooks and crannies that cried to be searched, but the Northern and Southern regions were extremely short despite the challenge increasing significantly. I was only left with wanting more of Hyper Light Drifter by the end of it, and I had to say goodbye to a great game that I just wish there was more of. There is a secret arena that can be accessed, but it doesn’t hold the same euphoria of exploring the world that I became engrossed in.

It’s also a game that, after collecting everything, doesn’t have much charm in going back to. There’s very little to do outside of the story, and what there is to do it just isn’t compelling. The game is lovely for the first time through, I just wish there was more than the four sections to hack my way through. I don’t see myself going back to play the game years down the road, but I’ll never forget my travels while I was playing it.

Promising results

Hyper Light Drifter is a fantastic debut for a promising studio that shows it can offer players with an engaging, difficult, and immersive game that just leaves players wanting more. The soundtrack, the visuals, the minimal storytelling, and the fluid combination of all of these makes Hyper Light Drifter a must-have for people who want to play something new and refreshing that promises nothing but good times.

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